Important Information About Stalkers and Trolls - Please Read

No website is immune to people who use them inappropriately, in ways that make others feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Unfortunately, this includes SAS.

There is a very, very small amount of members here who are known to be stalkers. Some of these people have been causing problems for several years, and have been permanently banned multiple times.

These stalkers have been able to find other online profiles of members here, as well as find out where they live, simply by knowing a first name. This escalated in the past to contacting and harassing family members, including to bully them.

Many members have been left feeling so uncomfortable that they can no longer post or visit SAS, fearing the stalkers will somehow use any posts they make to harass them or stalk them further.

Unfortunately, the only thing that can currently be done about this is to ban these stalkers over and over. They always find a way to return, despite our best efforts to ban them as soon as we find out they have returned. Some of you might have noticed some recurring trolls - spammers and stalkers work in the same way.

They can sometimes make it hard for us or anyone else to spot them. This enables them to make more posts on here and act like a normal member whilst they get to know some of the members better. These members may then feel comfortable enough around them to share personal information, and this could later be used to defame them, stalk them, bully them or similar.

This announcement is not intended to scare anyone. It is a reminder to be careful about what you share on SAS, and how much information your posts or other messages contain. The same level of caution should also apply to any other websites you use. Any photos you post could potentially be saved and posted elsewhere, as has happened before. Please always think before posting anything that could identify you, such as your workplace, school, town or last name. Whenever possible, check any photos you plan to post for anything in the background such as letters that could show your name or address, or car license/number plates.

If anyone ever makes you feel uncomfortable, or you are being harassed, please send one of the moderators a message:

Each post, PM and visitor message can be reported by clicking the exclamation mark (!) which can be found next to the message. If you have any suspicions about any other member, feel free to report it so it can be checked and something can be done about it.

Even without the stalkers, there are many people here who feel uncomfortable with people addressing them by their first name in posts. This can make it easier for them to be found on here by people they know. Please ask the person if they would mind if you use their name before posting it without permission, especially if their username doesn't contain their name.

Edited on December 8th, 2018 - There are other forums where members from SAS are also a member, and some have been saving photos and videos of members from here to post on the other forums, which is usually for the purposes of mocking or shaming. We are currently looking into this, however, there are possibly many other (and possibly worse) cases of this happening without our knowledge. Please use caution when posting any type of information you would not want used in such a way.

Trolls - Posted by LydeaCharlotte on July 16th, 2017

There is, unfortunately, often a significant problem with trolls on this forum, especially one notorious troll who is probably very well known to most long-term regular posters. What they really want and thrive on, is lots of reactions. While the mods always try and ban any trolls as quickly as possible, they tend to keep coming back again and again. In order to discourage them, we ask that, as well as reporting them, you do not quote or respond to any obvious troll posts/threads. Please just try and ignore them.

Suspicious PMs - Posted by A Toxic Butterfly on August 23rd, 2018

It has been brought to moderator attention a notorious troll has been sending inappropriate messages via PM to users and harassing them. Please if you have received any suspicious PMs report them to us via the report button (triangle icon with exclamation) above the message. They can be easily identified by new account age and inappropriate content typically involving non-consensual sexual activity or sexual harassment. Regardless please report these messages and users for ANY suspicious messages. Thank you.